Ring opening reactions of heterocycles with selenium and tellurium nucleophiles

An overview of the preparation and synthetic potentialities of functionalized organoselenium and organotellurium compounds is presented. Various methods to generate selenated or tellurated nucleophiles are described. Focusing on the more recent developments, in this Perspective reactions of selenium and tellurium nucleophiles with heterocycles (O-, N-, and S-containing) of different ring size (three, four, five, and six-membered) to access a variety of organo-chalcogen compounds, bearing different functional groups, are covered. Their application in organic synthesis and asymmetric catalysis is also reported, along with some novel methodologies derived thereof.